


i'm fighting for this place i've named my home

by charonismyfriend



Series: what happens on Pandora stays on Pandora (post TFTBl) [1]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-01-01 01:10:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18325649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charonismyfriend/pseuds/charonismyfriend
Summary: Helios is down and the Vault of the Traveler disappeared with Rhys and Fiona inside it. Pandora is finally free from Jack only to face new difficulties and the Vault Hunters are summoned once again to fight against the rest of the world, although Axton starts to question his desicion and all his life choices.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Set after Tales from the Borderlands when Rhys and Fiona got into the Vault (and didn't come back for a while) and before the events of Borderlands 3. This is the first part of the series and it's focused on August and Axton.
> 
> The title is a butchered line from "Violence" by Ocean Jet.

The bed made a suspicious noise as if it was about to break when Axton threw his bag on it. He was at the Sanctuary. Again. It’s not like he disliked being there; after all, it’s the safest place on Pandora, or, actually, above it, but it just brought too many memories and not all of them were exactly good ones. Axton suspected he’d end up here sooner or later but he didn’t expect it to be now. He was doing a pretty good job taking care of himself at Hammerlock’s place in Liar's Berg which the old man kindly let him stay at on a few conditions: look after his house, fight back anyone or anything that tries to damage it and collect specimens for Hammerlock’s experiments once in a while. A few weeks went by and Axton really started to relax for the first time in what felt like forever. 

He was in middle of collecting thrashers’ limbs when Lilith contacted him.

“Axton. You on Pandora?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he grunted, fighting back couple of fuckers who crawled closer to see what was going on. “Why?”

“We, uhh… We’re looking for all the Vault Hunters we could find. Thought you’d be helpful.”

“Something happened?”

“Don’t know if you’d noticed but almost every corporation decided to come back to Pandora. You know, after Helios went down. Eridians want our help in stopping every corporate slut from mining eridium.”

Axton jumped into the runner and started the engine. “They didn’t seem to mind Jack doing that.”

“Jack was…” Lilith audibly breathed out trying to tame her anger. “It was only Hyperion and it was easier fighting against them. Now there’s Dahl and Maliwan, and also there’re rumors that Atlas came back from the dead. “

“So what did Eridians promised you in return?” It wasn’t the question he had in mind but it was better to get straight to the point.

There was a pause on the other end; Lilith seemed to have contemplated telling Axton about the price.

“It’s a good deal. You’ll get your share.”

Fast-travel station was just couple of meters away so Axton got out of the runner and before travelling to Hammerlock’s place he stopped and considered the proposition. Even if he stayed out of it, Dahl or some other soldiers would probably find him in the end. And he’d much rather face them accompanied by other people like himself. As much as he trusted his turret, he knew it wouldn’t save him from the entire army.

“Just let me get my stuff,” he sighed.

And that’s how he ended up where he was now, at the Sanctuary. Looking at the wall of his room he got a strange feeling like he didn’t even went anywhere. It felt like you could just look out the window and see Helios again, floating above you like the second sun, only the one that never disappeared. But no, there was no Helios. And there was no Handome Jack anymore. And as much as he was happy about it, not having to face that old crazy motherfucker ever again, Axton was also a little… scared. Jack was bad, there was no doubt about that but at least you knew who you were up against. Hyperion also kept Dahl and Maliwan away from Pandora and Elpis, and the soldiers that were left were relatively easy to deal with. But now… no one really knew what was going on or what was going to happen next. That shit was scary, not that Axton was about to admit it to anyone. 

He got up and stretched his arms above his head, a few of his backbones cracked. He decided that rather than spending his first night at the Sanctuary wallowing in memories he should go see everyone at the small welcoming party Mordecai and Brick threw. Axton suspected it was just an excuse for Mordecai to get drunk and to get everyone around him drunk so that people would pass out or go dancing and not talk about their problems. Mordecai hated when you get nostalgic, especially when you talk about Roland. No one really got over him. 

Moxxi’s bar was the loudest place in the city since every citized decided to join the party. Hostess herself was sitting on the bar stand pouring liquor and occasionally bending back to get a new bottle. She was the first one to see him.

“Axton, here you are! We thought you wouldn’t come, sugar.”

He didn’t answer that, only awkwardly smiled and shook hands with Mordecai and Brick. Lilith was nowhere to be found, although he doubted she’d be there. Moxxi handed him a glass with something definitely alcoholic in it and after a brief moment of considering future hangover Axton gave in and downed the whole glass. Brick patted him on the shoulder and said “Still drink like a Slab” to which Axton gave a more genuine smile.

Suddenly there was some motion at the door and people started cheering. Without even turning his head Axton heard a familiar robotic voice. “Yes, I am also pleased to see you,” that was said with no audible joy. Apparently, Zer0 was back from his mission with the Vault of the Traveler that had vanished once again but now with two people inside it. Still, it was nice to see one of his closest friends.

Axton quickly turned around and launched himself into a hug with Zer0. Just as he was about to say how much he missed him, Axton’s gaze fell on someone who followed his friend into the bar. Anger got a hold of him so quickly that he was still embracing Zer0 when he threw the turret. The moment it opened Axton was already holding a gun. The bar went silent. 

“What the fuck are you doing in here?” Axton was ready to kill the person but first he wanted to know who gave him the right to come to the Sanctuary.

“This is my new friend / He asks to call him August / We had a mission,” said Zer0 quite calmly. Although everything Zer0 said was calm so you couldn’t really tell which emotion he showed unless it was displayed as a hologram. Axton looked at Zer0 but there was nothing on his helmet. 

“He’s not staying here”

“He is,” it was Lilith who turned out to have been in the bar the entire time. 

“I’m not working with him. Because I’ll kill him right now”

“Nobody’s killing anyone,” Lilith was getting angry herself. “We need everyone” 

“No. That motherfucker is useless,” Axton looked straight at August, fixing his aim at him.

The turret folded itself into the box, and Mordecai stepped over it to lower Axton’s gun. “Sorry. You can’t kill him.”

Commando swore he saw the tiny smug grin on August’s face as he was storming past him out of the bar but he decided to get mad about it later.


	2. Then

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flashback to the first meeting of Axton and August.

Axton met August for the first time a while ago. Or, actually, he first met his mother Vallory. Right after Jack died and Hyperion temporarily stopped sending more robots to the planet, local gangs went batshit crazy and started hunting after any source of income they could find. Around that time Vallory’s gang chose one of the Hyperion trains to rob. Unfortunately, so did Crimson Raiders. 

Raiders were the ones to stop the train in the Highlands before it reached Opportunity and as they were about to scavenge it, Vallory showed up out of nowhere. 

“I suggest you go away now,” she stated, while her gang started opening one of the carriages. 

“I suggest you shut the fuck up,” said Mordecai already pointing his gun at her. She didn’t seem to care and in one motion of her hand she signaled her people to start shooting at Raiders. Lilith made an executive decision to teleport the train somewhere else with the help of Maya leaving Brick, Salvador, Krieg, Axton and Mordecai to fight with marauders. In all of this chaos Axton was separated from the group and forced into the corner between rocks, water and shooting gangsters. He ran out of ammo quickly and held his hands up in surrender. 

They escorted him to Vallory who had blood on her jacket and Axton prayed his friends weren’t hurt. There wasn’t anyone else he knew and he realized he was the only one captured. Stupid Axton. 

“Well, well, who do we have here?” she made her way up to him, putting away her gun. “Your friends left”

Axton didn’t feel the need to respond to that.

“I’m sure they’ll pay a good price to see you again,” she then turned to one of her people, “Knock him out, I don’t want any rebellious outbursts on the way to the base.”

He wasn’t even able to say a word before someone hit him in the head. Everything went black.

***

Next time Axton regained his consciousness was at the so-called “jail” that Vallory’s marauders made at the base. In fact it was a cage that they stole from Hyperion and placed in the middle of the camp near the fire. Axton sat up unsteady and touched the skin on his head where he was hit. The spot was sore but it was nothing he couldn’t handle, he experienced worse. 

He saw a group of gang members sitting and eating something and realized how hungry he was.

“Hey. Hey! You mind giving your prisoner some food?”

One gangster came closer to the cage and continued devouring whatever that was in his hands.

“You know you need me alive, right?” Axton tried appealing to logic but the only thing he received was a bone with no meat on it. The gang proceeded to laugh which must have caught Vallory’s attention because she appeared soon after and told everyone to “Get lost”.

She whipped out an ECHO device and smiled with no joy in her eyes.

“Hello, Lilith. How are your Crimson Raiders doing?”

“Where’s Axton?”

“Oh, don’t you worry. He’s right here with me. Right, Axton?” she pulled an ECHO away from her face towards him. When he said nothing Vallory took out a shotgun.

“Yes,” he raised his voice a little to be heard. “I’m here”. 

“What do you want?” the siren didn’t have much patience especially when it came to one of her friends being kidnapped.

“ _I want_ what you got from that Hyperion train”

“But… there was nothing valuable there,” Lilith sounded lost for a second. “Only some crap for construction sites”

“I wish I could believe you”

“I’m telling you the truth. We didn’t get anything from the train”

“Too bad then that your friend Axton would die for nothing,” she cocked the shotgun.

“No, wait!” Lilith sighed. “How much?”

“A million. By tomorrow afternoon. Bring it to the Highlands. We’ll meet under the bridge”

“A million?! Are out of your mind?!”

“Either you give me what I want or I kill your friend. It’s a win-win for me, really, the less Crimson Raiders I have to deal with, the better”

Lilith grunted in annoyance. “Fine”

Vallory turned the ECHO off and put it away. “Don’t try anything funny at night or you’ll never see your friends again,” she went away leaving him on his own. Very soon the tiredness came all at once alongside with thirst and hunger so Axton decided to sleep in order not to think about food. The cage was cold and hard, he didn’t have his turret with him, all of the guns and grenades were gone and had no idea where the Raides would get that amount of money. The future looked quite bleak. At least in his dreams everything was allright. 

He woke up in the middle of the night because he needed to pee, badly. He scooped closer to the bars and looked for someone near him. There was a guy who Axton didn’t see before sitting and sleeping right next to the cage. Axton managed to poke him in the thigh with his hand. 

“What?” the guy was still sleepy and didn’t fully understand what woke him.

“I need to use the toilet. Or bushes. Whatever you use here”

“Yeah, I’m not letting you out”

“Okay, then I’ll piss on you,” Axton already had his hands on the zipper when the guy suddenly realized he wasn’t joking.

“Okay! Okay. Calm down”

The guy got up, took his gun with one hand and pulled out the keys from the cage with the other. He let Axton out and pointed where he needed to go. Axton did what he needed to and they headed back. There was something strange about the guy. His whole demeanor just screamed that he didn’t want to be there and not only because it was the middle of the night. This man had different kind of tiredness and sadness to him even if he tried to hide it behind a “cool” appearance. Axton thought a little conversation would help.

“So how long have you been working for Vallory?”

“I’m not talking to you,” Axton heard from behind him. 

“Come on, aren’t you bored?”

“I’m not bored. I was sleeping”

“You’re not sleeping _now_ ”

“Dude, just get in the cage”

Commando went inside and heard the lock being closed. The guy sat back down and had no visible intention to talk. Axton genuinely tried going back to sleep but to no avail. Those few of hours of sleep that he got was enough for his body to rest. The perks of being a Vault Hunter who’s always surrounded by danger, huh. The man outside wasn’t resting either. 

“For as long as I can remember,” he suddenly said.

“What?”

“You asked me how long I worked for Vallory”

Axton thought about it for a moment. “Do you owe her something?”

“Yeah, I guess you can say that,” there was a sad humour in his voice.

“Ever thought of joining another gang?”

“She won’t let me out alive. It’s better to be here”

“But…” Axton could figure out how he came to that conclusion but the words flew out of his mouth faster than he could think about them, “you seem different. You’re not like her or other gangsters here”

The guy was taken aback by that and quickly snarled “You don’t know me.” That seemed to be the end of the conversation. A few more minutes have passed in silence.

“What’s your name?”

There was no immediate answer and Axton almost gave up.

“August”

“Nice name”

“Thanks”

“I’m Axton”

“I know”

“Oh”

“Yeah”

There wasn’t much to say after that and men either drifted to sleep (August) or stayed laying and looking at the sky (Axton). 

***

The morning met napping Axton with a loud bang of a gunshot from Vallory’s gun. 

“Time to wake up!”

Axton’s wrists were immediately tied and the gangsters made him crawl in the back of the runner where August was already sitting with a knife in his hands. Neither of them acknowledged the presence of the other and the whole drive to the bridge was in silence. They got there first, the runner with Vallory came soon after. They left Axton and August sit in the vehicle while most of the gang spread around the area. Some marauders started fighting thrashers but it was mostly to waste time. 

Axton looked around. Across the bridge you could see the Opportunity – Handsome Jack’s wet dream of a city. The tallest office building and living quarters glistened in the sun. You could almost believe it was a functioning city with normal residents. 

“Your friends better get here sooner or she’ll get real mad,” August all but whispered so to not be caught talking to prisoner.

“It’s not like I can control it,” Axton said as quietly as he can.

Just a few moments later a loud and sudden explosion from the grenade came from over the hill. Vallory shouted for her men to get ready and they fired their shots towards the source of the sound. Two runners drove on the hill and Axton could see that it was Brick and Salvador. A little bit to the left Lilith flew surrounded by fire and scorching anyone who dared to come close. It all felt extremely staged exactly like a distracting maneuver so when Mordecai sneakily appeared near the runner where Axton and August were sitting commando wasn’t surprised.

“Hey!” August shouted to which Mordecai shushed him hoping Vallory didn't hear it. 

“Come on dude, just let me get away,” Axton looked at the guy next to him. There was an obvious thought process behind August’s eyes and he was starting to give in when Vallory suddenly shouted “August! What the hell are you doing, shoot them!” and that’s when the man was back to his usual self pulling out a gun. Although he hadn’t fired it yet. 

“August, you waste of a son, fucking kill him already!”

“You’re a what-“ but Axton couldn’t finished his question since Mordecai yanked him from the runner and they almost ran away. Almost. They were about get behind the rocks when there was a gunshot and then Axton felt pain in his left biceps. It hurt like a bitch but the wound definitely wasn’t a deadly one. Axton threw last glance over his shoulder only to see August being yelled at by Vallory and then both of them being attacked by the new portion of bullets from Brick and Salvador.

***

Axton was sitting on the pavement near Scooters garage absentmindedly stroking his left arm feeling the scar. 

“It’s strange, isn’t it? Seeing Elpis without this metal shit in front of it,” Mordecai’s words came from behind. He sounded drunk but then again he always sounded like that so maybe it was his normal voice. Axton didn’t move. “Listen, I don’t support him being here either. But we need people.”

No response.

“Okay, what if you could punch him in the face and when he would go complain to Lilith we’d tell her that he fell”

An involuntary smile appeared on Axton’s face. “No, don’t”. 

Mordecai walked closer and handed him the bottle. “Vallory’s dead, you know. That thing from the Vault killed her”

“Yeah, I think I heard something like that,” he took a swig and swallowed. “Decided they were rumors,” he handed back the bottle. 

“Well, they’re not. After she died August joined those guys who took down Helios. But then the Vault opened and closed again and the rest is history, you know”

“Yeah,” he nodded. They exchanged the bottle a couple more times.

“Maybe he’s not so bad if that Rhys guy left him alive”

“Do you trust the opinion of Hyperion worker?” Axton turned to look at Mordecai in astonishment.

“He killed Jack”

“ _We_ killed Jack. But something tells me the fucker is still alive in one form or another”

Mordecai didn’t answer but stayed with Axton for a while and when they both felt it was getting late they went separate ways without telling each other another word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone's confused about the timeline of the flashback: it happened some time after the events of B2 and before TFTB and what was shown in Pre-Sequel with Athena's interrogation. The Helios was still up in the sky and Jack's AI wasn't yet discovered by Rhys.


	3. Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vaults Hunters are needed by everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was written before the last B2 DLC was released so the description of fallen Helios is of my imagination and not according to canon.

Chilling morning air crept under Axton’s clothes as he was emerging from the room he occupied at the Sanctuary. There was absolutely no one around, everyone was either sleeping their hangover away after yesterday’s night at the bar or they hadn’t yet convinced themselves to meet the light of the day. Elpis was the only thing to meet Axton, it was covered in fog and mist but not the kind you’d like to be in or breathe in. Commando made his way back to the outskirt of the city where he last was the previous day because he couldn’t find one of his knives. 

He got down the stairs, went a bit further to the edge and yep, there it was, laying just where Axton left it. He really should be more careful in the future, Pandora didn’t like forgetfulness and next time he might not be so lucky. 

Axton stood up and looked over his shoulder.

“Damn,” almost whispering to himself.

Scooter’s place was closed, obviously, because you didn’t really need a runner since the base was hundreds of meters above the surface of the planet. But the sign was there. It wasn’t like the citizens of the Sanctuary adored Scooter but no one had it in them to remove the sign or give the garage to anyone else. The memory was there. And it was one of the only things left from Scooter. There was no body. Axton heard that Ellie visited Sanctuary soon after she found out her brother was dead and someone also told him that she cried for hours near the garage door. He’d seen her afterwards but never mentioned it. They both pretended nothing happened. It was probably for the best.

Axton turned away. 

But the view on the other side from him was no happier. From where he was standing he could make out the outline of the Southern Shelf, where Hammerlock’s place was located. Maybe he should just fast-travel back there and spend the rest of his life building a farm, fighting rakks and bullymongs. And when Maliwan or Dahl some other corporation finds him he’d jump into the waters of the harbor never to be seen again. 

Yeah, he could do that. He saved it as an option in his mind for when things go out of hand which they most certainly will and headed towards the Crimson Raiders HQ where there was supposed to be a meeting soon.

***

“So, here’s the plan,” started Lilith, putting both of her hands on the table. “Maliwan and Dahl are setting up their digging sites around Pandora. There’s one right next to the place where Sanctuary used to be – in Three Horns Valley. Maliwan got into the game and I heard they’d already killed the last of Bloodshot Gang members, taking over the harbour. But that’s not everything.”

She pointed at the hologram of Pandora above the table. 

“Dahlwere defter and found Hyperion mines in Eridium Blight. They are our main concern.” 

Vault Hunters stayed silent, the only sound was coming from the engines in the middle of the Sanctuary that kept it in the air. An Eridian was also present in the room but was considered more like a shadow that you see in the corner of your eye at night. Lilith continued.

“Most of us will go to Blight. A few will be sent to the Valley. Kill every worker you see. Punch the hell out of their equipment. They need to know that they are not welcome here”. Sounded just like every other mission they went on in the past. 

Everyone in the room nodded and then exited the HQ. Lilith was left with the Eridian entity. Axton hoped that they were discussing the aerial support for the upcoming endeavor but deep down he knew it was something about the payment. Of course the best price on Pandora is survival but cash could somewhat help. 

Vault Hunters fast-travelled to the surface of the planet and started driving away in different directions. He was in the group that was supposed to go to the Eridium Blight and he had just jumped into the runner when he heard a voice over the ECHO.

“Hel- Hello? Can anyone hear me?” it seemed to be translating into everyone’s ECHO devices, judging by the bewildered look on Maya’s and Brick’s faces who hadn’t drove off yet and a question mark that Zer0 displayed. He was in the gunner’s seat of Axton’s runner. 

Vault Hunters looked at each other not recognizing the speaker. Suddenly Zer0 displayed exclamation point and started talking.

“Vaugh?”

“Zer0! Yes, It’s me! Are you already at the Sanctuary? I need your help”

“Has something happened / Are you in any danger/ Is-?” the voice in the ECHO interrupted him.

“No, no, I’m okay. But… Loader Bot picked up signals from the Vault of the Traveler. Its gravitational signs fluctuated on the seismographic output line. If it really appears then we need to secure the area around it in case Rhys and Fiona come back”

“Wait, is that the guy from Children of Helios?” Axton wondered out loud and frowned when no one responded. August, the Eridian and Lilith travelled to Pandora as well and tuned in on what was going on. 

“Tell him we’re busy,” added Brick. 

“Tell who?” asked Lilith. 

Zer0 handed her the ECHO and she quickly discussed the situation with Vaughn.  
“Alright. I’ll send a couple of my people,” she stopped the call. “Axton and Zer0, go their base. And take August with you”

Axton was ready to protest but Lilith immediately flew away so instead he grunted and pursed his lips. August crawled in the back of the runner and Axton prayed he’d fall off while they were driving. 

***

You could see where Helios crashed onto Pandora from miles away so it wasn’t that hand to locate the base. The ground was marked with wheel traces and projectors highlighted the gate so you couldn’t miss it. 

“We’re here to see Vaughn,” Axton said to the person in the small window in the wall. 

“What’s yer name, fella?” was said in a condescending voice.

“Oh, you’re here, great!” a short man appeared out of nowhere in the window and then quickly opened the gate letting the Vault Hunters in. Axton, August and Zer0 immediately got out of the runner. Vaughn noticed an unfamiliar face and extended his hand towards commando. “Hi, I’m Vaughn”

Axton never saw Vaughn before and from the voice over the ECHO he painted a very different picture to what he was seeing now. He guy was _ripped_. He didn’t just have a six-pack, it was a full-on twelve-pack that you could clearly see though and unbuttoned shirt. Commando made a mental push to calm down his bisexuality so it wouldn’t interfere with the mission. But later… who knows.

Vaughn led them to what appeared to be the main building although it was mostly a wild guess based on the height of the building. You could see the outlines of ex-parts of Helios but it was also obvious that the workers kept themselves busy dismantling Handsome Jack’s legacy and constructing their new base. They had pretty talented engineers. Well, since Jack killed everyone who wasn’t up to standards. 

The HQ had a big sign above the entrance that said “Children of Helios”. Inside there was a hall, which you could mistake for a relatively normal office building and not something made out of burned parts of the space station. It must have been one of the only chunks that survived the fall in their fullest. 

“If you just wait here for a moment…” he gestured to the sofas and disappeared behind the door. Zer0 was quickly recognized by the workers and got sucked into the conversation in the other room.

“Don’t you wanna go say hi to friends here?” Axton asked with a slight tone of sarcasm. Blink and you miss it. 

“’m not exactly friends with people here. Hyperion workers despised scumbags like me when they were up in space, not much has changed”

Axton was surprised by a decent answer and decided to say nothing since he obviously couldn’t be nice.

A couple of minutes had passed when August suddenly turned towards Axton and leaned a liny bit closer avoiding eavesdropping from ex-Helios workers.

“Why the hell did you whip out your turret in the bar?”

Axton huffed. “I was surprised to see a person who shot me the last time we met”

“I _barely_ scratched your arm”

“And how about the fact that you’re Vallory’s son?”

“What about it?”

“Could’ve just said it right away so I wouldn’t have persuaded you to join us.”

“What difference does it make?” August leaned back a little, frowning.

“Family is family. On Pandora it’s hard being alone against the rest of the world.”

“I never said I supported her,” August said absentmindedly. Then he added: “You acted like I killed all of your friends or somethin’”

“Well, how was I supposed to know you’re not the new gang leader,” Axton was heating up a little. And then a bit calmer: ”Thought you’d take Vallory’s place after her death”

“Well, I didn’t,” and it sounded like it meant more than it did. An unsaid _‘maybe, I am different after all’_ sort of hang in the air but quickly vanished when Vaughn came back. Zer0 also came out of nowhere and Axton wondered if he overheard their conversation.

“So-o-o, a couple of news,” Vaughn put his hands on his hips and, goddamn it, Axton really needed to stop checking the guy out. “We know where the Vault might appear soon. And that’s about it on good news”

“Oh, great,” mumbled August.

“The bad news, it’s near Dahl's new camp. It’s where they made the landing site for the spacecrafts that bring new soldiers, scientists and engineers to Pandora. Even if they won’t notice you they’ll probably notice a giant Vault. That contains Rhys and Fiona, I must remind you,” his voice got deeper and even sounded a bit threatening. “You must bring them back safely. And don’t get caught or everything will go re-a-a-lly bad re-a-ally quickly”

 _The day just keeps getting better and better_ , thought Axton.

They were given a new runner with the ability to turn invisible. Vaughn mentioned it was a side project from the night stalkers’ study which came in handy when you needed to drive past dangerous places unnoticed. Vaughn and Loader Bot joined them in a different runner. 

Dahl's camp was in the northeast Highlands, almost in the middle between Children of Helios base in Dead Sands near Eridium Blight and the Three Horns Valley. Axton wondered why Dahl didn’t just fly their people straight to Eridium Blight but after a quick thought it actually made sence to choose Highlands because of the nice weather there, compared to pretty much any other region on Pandora. And it was probably a wise decision to have a landing site far from the mines where the dynamite and other explosives were used. But what it also meant was that the road from the Dust to the Highlands would now be cut off which was just fucking brilliant. Thankfully, the place where the Vault was supposed to appear was slightly more to the north, almost on the border between the Dust and the Highlands but still in a rocket launcher shooting distance from Dahl's camp. There were a couple of hills you could hide behind but that wouldn’t exactly help. 

Two runners stopped near the last hill before the valley in front of Dahl's base. 

“It should be in this opening right here,” said Vaughn over the ECHO and then added quieter: “Any minute now”

They waited. 

Nothing happened. 

They waited a bit more.

There was a noise of a big vehicle’s engine being turned on, probably the one that carried new Dahl people to the Eridium Blight. But other than that… nothing happened.

“Hey, Vaughn, are you sure–“ Axton didn’t have a chance to finish his question because the ground started to shake. Like, heavily shake. Then there was lightning that went through the sky blinding every creature with eyes for a moment. Vault Hunters jumped out of the runners and carefully looked over the hill. 

As soon as they saw a gargantuan rock arc in the middle of the valley, it disappeared.

“What the fuck!” exclaimed Vaughn while standing up in his full height. Even though the man wasn’t particularly tall, it seemed to be enough to be noticed by Dahl soldiers whose attention must have been caught by a giant ass arc. 

Someone fired a shot from a sniper rifle but apparently that someone had a shitty aim and it didn’t hit anyone. More shots followed and Vault Hunters were forced to seek cover behind the hill. They jumped into the vehicles and started driving away. Axton and August occupied the driver’s seat and Zer0 got into the gunner seat with two SMGs in his hands. 

The shots continued. A few of them hit the runners which made the cars visible for a while and that’s a huge fucking inconvenience when you’re trying to get away from the swarm of soldiers. Dahl's people got into their own carriages and caught up in almost no time. 

Axton pushed the gas pedal as hard as he could and quickly looked around. To the left there was Vaughn’s runner, thankfully, but on the right a car with Dahl soldiers was closing the interval between them. The shots were getting closer and closer to hitting Axton. Judging by the sound Zer0 was busy fighting off another carriage behind them and couldn’t fire at the one near them.

“Duck,” said August pulling out the gun. The reflexes reacted faster than mind and Axton crouched. He heard the shots above him that apparently hit the target since the engine sound on the right got quieter. 

Axton made himself believe that the worst had passed. Quickly he realized it was a just a rooky mistake. Just when he thought they could get away he heard a cry of pain from August. 

“Ah! Fucking hell!” August dropped his gun and held his chest with both of his hands. 

Dahl soldiers seemed to have stopped following them so the Vault Hunters were able to slow down and seek a small shelter between high rocks of Frozen Wastes. Axton stopped the car and turned towards August.

“Shit. You okay?”

“They fucking… shot me! Of course I’m not okay!” one of August’s hands dropped as if it didn’t have any power in it. “Fucking… bullets…” the guy was pretty much losing his consciousness with every passing second.

“August? August!” Axton tried calling him but to no avail.

Vaughn and Loader Bot were anxiously looking at them from their runner.  
“There’s a fast-travel nearby. Unfortunately we can’t go to our base, our travel station broke recently,” Vaughn said, frowning. “But maybe we can go to Sanctuary?”

“Yeah,” Axton was shaken up more that thought he would be. “Yeah, let’s do that”  
He started the runner and quickly drove to the fast-travel Vaughn mentioned. When they got there, Axton carefully lifted August in his arms and approached the lighted pole of the station. 

_Hope it doesn’t fuck up the system_ , he thought to himself while holding unconscious August in his hands.

***

As soon as they were teleported to the Sanctuary, Axton rushed to Dr. Zed’s clinic, if you can call it that. No one actually believed that Zed had a medical degree or was in any way a person you’d trust with your health but there wasn’t much choice. Doctors were a rarity on Pandora and if you have someone who can at least hold a scalpel the right way then it’a win. 

“What is the matter–“ started saying Dr. Zed when a group of four busted into his clinic but when he saw a body he immediately swiped away all loose organs that were lying on the operating table. 

Axton put August on the table trying not to mind the smell. 

“Ah, I see,” said Zed after initial examination. “I will need some time with that. And, uh– does anyone have spare blood?”

Considering that among the three conscious Vault Hunters one was a robot, that didn’t leave much room to chose. 

“I have B positive,” blurted out Vaughn when the eyes fixed on him.

“Zero positive,” said Axton.

While two men were listing their blood types Zed pulled out some kind of a scanner and ran it over August’s body. 

“Yours will do” the doctor nodded towards Axton. He asked a nurse to get some blood from commando, rushed Vaughn and Loader Bot out of the room and got to cutting off the chemically burned flesh from the patients body.

Axton didn’t remember much of the operation – the loss of blood made him feel spaced-out and dizzy. He even completely missed out the moment when the nurse forced him to lie down on the second only bed in the room. 

He must have fallen asleep or lost his consciousness because the next thing he felt was being rudely shaken awake by Dr. Zed. 

“The patient is alive. Take him out of here.”

Axton got up to his feet, swayed a little and approached the operating table. August was bandaged up over his chest but other than that seemed quite healthy. He felt heavier when Axton picked him up again but that could be the effect of commando’s own weakness.

As it turned out, a lot of time had passed since he entered the clinic. It was already dark, late twilight. The Sanctuary was quiet. Axton wasn’t sure if Lilith and others came back from the Eridium Blight but he didn’t have any energy to find that out. Vaughn and Loader Bot were nowhere to be seen. 

He wanted to carry August to his room but then quickly realized that he had no idea where August lived. Well, apparently he had no choice. 

Axton’s bed wasn’t exactly big but it could fit two people in there even if it meant that you had to touch every part of other person’s body to stay on the said bed. And Axton sure as hell wasn’t sleeping on the floor, his back still ached from the bed in Zed’d clinic, and making August sleep on the floor seemed just plain out cruel. 

Axton pushed August towards the wall and then climbed into the bed while also stripping out his boots and his clothes. As soon as his head hit the pillow everything felt manageable. Not right now, probably tomorrow. But manageable.  
August was quietly breathing right next to him, the Sanctuary’s engine roared in the distance and that calmed Axton down. He was probably going to fight for his life again tomorrow but at that exact moment he was going to get every bit of sleep he could.


	4. New guy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed a few thing in chapter 3 for the work to be more canon: Maliwan site is small and they took over Dahl base in Three Horns Valley and Dahl themselves came with soldiers to Eridium Blight (basically reversed the names that I used).

Something felt heavy. So heavy Axton had trouble breathing. It meant that something was pressing him down and might crush him. Reflexes fired up quicker that the analytical part of the brain and not even a second later Axton pushed a body off of himself and grabbed a knife from the floor, rapidly getting up.

When he finally woke up and focused his eyes he saw August slowly moving his arms in front of his face.

"What the fuck, man..." August opened his eyes and took a look around the room. "Where the fuck am I?"

Axton sighed and lowered the knife.

"In my room. I didn't know where you lived so..." he gestured with his arms instead of finishing the sentence. 

"How did I get here?" August grimaced.

"I, uh... I carried you. After you were shot" Axton paused, trying to understand why August didn't look like he recollected it. "You remember being shot, right? Oh fuck, did you lose your memory from the anesthetic-" he started spiralling a little but August interrupted him.

"No, I remember that I was shot. Covering your ass, by the way. I just don't remember getting to Sanctuary," he rubbed his eyes.

"Well, you blacked out half way here,” Axton holstered his knife in the trousers that were on the floor. “I had to carry you to Zed. I hope he didn’t leave any medical tools in you...” the last part was barely audible.

“What’s that?”

“Nothin’. Can you get up?”

August flexed his muscles and groaned with no coherent response. 

“I guess that’s a no. Okay then...” Axton sighed. “Stay here, I’ll get you something to eat.”

He was already almost behind the door when he heard a quiet “Thanks”.

The air was already warm, even somewhat stuffy. Axton didn’t believe in superstitions and rarely listened to the crazy and incomprehensible weather forecast made by Tiny Tina that was put in between her discussion of tea parties and bombs in the ECHOnet show but he felt that that kind of air didn’t promise anything positive whatsoever. Just as he started walking towards Moxxi’s, he heard a group of voices coming from the fast-travel pavilion and then out came Lilith, Brick, Mordecai and a bunch of Crimson Raiders. They didn’t look particularly fresh but at least they weren’t covered in blood. Maya, Kraig and Salvador were in the different group that went to Dahl’s station and they either hadn’t returned yet or they were already catching their breath somewhere in the Sanctuary.

Axton came closer and tried talking to someone but there was no response. He followed Mordecai asking him in particular. 

“So, are we fucked?”

“We’re always fucked”

And that was about it. 

So Axton did the next best thing and headed to the Crimson Raiders HQ where he saw Lilith coming into.

As he walked in, he heard Lilith’ voice upstairs.

“Why can’t you help us? We’re doing everything we can!”

Then incoherent speech from the Eridian.

“Alright,” a sigh. “But I need you to promise me you’re not lying”

Axton quietly went up the stairs and around the corner. When he opened the door the Eridian walked out past him making Axton plaster himself to the wall. Finally he managed to get to Lilith.

“Hey...” at the sound of his voice she quickly put on a smile but not quick enough for Axton not to notice her angry and somewhat saddened expression from before. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, uh... Great”

“Really?” he furrowed his brows. “Because Mordecai seemed very discouraged and I thought that maybe something happened at the Blight”

She ran other hand through her hair and sat. 

“Dahl is here. Like, full forces. They picked up where Hyperion has left. And we know that they’re not after Vaults like Jack was,” even though Jack’s name was still muttered with disgust the recent events added a couple of points to his defence. Yeah, Jack was a sociopath and a murderer and pretty much everything you could imagine but at least you knew what he was after: killing Vault Hunters and opening Vaults. No one knew what Dahl can do, or Maliwan. Atlas had already had their fair share of alien technology on Promethea which they incorporated in their weapons, and what stops Maliwan, aka crazy biochemists, from doing the same with Eridian knowledge on Pandora. Dahl’s been digging for a while before Hyperion scared them away but now there’s no Jack, no Hyperion, no Helios. And who knows what they would do to eliminate any threats like bandits and Vault Hunters. After all, if their main concern is mining Eridium, they wouldn’t need the Vaults anymore, quite the opposite actually, the monsters would only distract them. 

Axton wanted to believe he came to all of these conclusions himself but it was actually something he heard from Lilith and Mordecai so he wasn’t that smart. At least he patted himself on the back for remembering it all.

“So... What can we do?”

“Fight them. Show them they’re not welcome here”

“And do we have enough people for that? There’s like what, a hundred Crimson Raiders max? Brick’s slabs would make another two or three hundred. And if, and that’s a big if, you call upon your followers as Firehawk it would add around another two hundred,” he tried doing the math on the spot but failed. “We don’t even have a thousand. And I’m pretty sure I saw more than that in Dahl arrival station yesterday”

Lilith sighed and suddenly flinched towards Axton.

“I completely forgot, how did it go yesterday?”

“Not productive, I’ll tell you that. No one appeared from the Vault and also August got shot”

“Shit, is he okay?”

“Yeah, he’s alive. Zed did something and we can only hope there’s no internal bleeding. But I mean, that’s where blood is supposed to be, right?”

Lilith looked at him for a couple of seconds but didn’t answer.

A knock on the door startled them a little.

“Zero! Come in,” said Lilith.

“Excuse me, Lilith / It came to my attention / We need more people”

“Yeah?”

“I know a person / You may not like her at all / You have met before”

Lilith paused for a moment.

“Is it- Are you- No. No!”

“What’s going on?” asked Axton.

“I don’t like where this is going,” the siren got up from the chair and started pacing around.

“We don’t have a choice / Athe-“

“I don’t want to hear her name!”

“Wait, Athena?” said Axton incredulously. “As in Athena who killed more people than any of us put together?” 

Axton heard about her. Hell, everyone knew about her. Pandora is not that big and it is mostly filled with monsters and psychos so of course you’d know someone who spilled that much blood. 

“I will go see her / Tell her it is important / She will understand,” Zer0 was already heading towards the exit.

“Wait, let me go with you. I wanna meet her. I mean, come on, it’s Athena we’re talking about”

“No one is going anywhere,” said Lilith in annoyance. “I don’t approve of her”

“It is not a time / To be childish, Lilith / We are in danger”

After a couple of seconds of intense stares between siren’s eyes and black expressionless helmet Lilith gave up. “Ugh, fine. Go talk to Moxxi, she’ll get you to Elpis.”

Elpis? No one told Axton anything about Elpis. He thought they’d go somewhere like Hollow Point or Lynchwood at least but the moon? And it’s not like Axton had never been there, Sir Hammerlock had a brilliant idea of collecting cryo vines in Triton Flats which almost cost Axton an arm since he was stupid enough to touch these plants with his bare hands, but he had no intention on going back there, especially if it meant jumping aboard another one of Hammerlock’s rockets to get to the moon. 

Axton was in the middle of a life crisis when Zer0 brought him to Moxxi. 

“Going to the moon, huh? Alright, I will go with you. I needed to check up on my bar in Concordia anyway,” and with that she led them to the back room. There, covered in boxes and broken slot machines, was a Fast-Travel Station. It gave off a purple light, unlike any stations on Pandora. 

“Get ready boys, it’s going to be a bumpy ride”

Several moments of disintegrating later and here they were in… Moxxi’s back room? Again? 

Axton swore he was high on drugs and he had already opened his mouth to ask Moxxi why they were back at the Sanctuary when the door opened and behind it was a completely different bar. Music blasting from the speakers was electronic and the lights were brighter. Axton stepped out into the bar and took in everything around him. This bar felt different, almost alien or futuristic. Sergeant felt out of place and the feeling only deepened when Zer0 led him out to the open space. 

On the right there were tall walls of what seemed like living quarters behind a tower and on the left...on the left there was the most beautiful sunset Axton ever witnessed. He came closer to the edge drawn by the scenery. 

Vast valley spread in front of Concordia with occasional cliffs standing tall in the mist. Nothing and no one broke the veil that was covering the moon. Pandora was hanging close in the sky in all its glory, so close it seemed impossible. To think that everything that happened, every crazy adventure he went on was condensed on this otherwise tiny rock was bizarre. The view felt unreal. 

When you looked at it you could almost forget where you were. You could forget bandits who were out there to kill you or even the fact that you had to fight for your life with the nature itself. This sunset made you believe you could spend the rest of your life just sitting at the edge of Concordia never having to worry about anything. It was a moment of solitude. You didn’t feel lonely, you felt at peace. The sun will never set. The night won’t come. It’ll be like that forever.

Axton suddenly jerked awake when there was an announcement played somewhere over his head.

“This is a Public Service Announcement: Meteor showers; they're a fact of life here on Elpis, but here's a helpful tip for avoiding being squashed like a bug under a ton of flaming, falling rock; when you've got a sec, look up!”

And just like that the magic was broken. Axton looked around him and noticed that Zer0 was standing next to the wall with a sheet of paper on it. Upon closer inspection the paper turned out to be a note. “In Serenity’s Waste. Be back sometime. - Janey”

“Serenity’s Waste? Where is it?”

Without any answer Zer0 turned around and headed across the square expecting Axton to follow, which he did. They made a few turns and seemed to have exited the main block of buildings ending up on the outskirts of the city. One elevator ride later they found themselves in a poorly lit tunnel that looked endless. 

After fifteen tedious minutes Axton and Zer0 finally emerged out of the tunnel into some sort of a building with three big arch exits for cars with what seemed like a force shield. 

“Oh, yeah, no oxygen. Hey, do you have a spare Oz kit?” Axton glanced at Zer0 who was busy generating them a vehicle. “Do you even need oxygen?” he was mostly thinking out loud.

Zer0 didn’t answer his wonderings and simply said: “You don’t need Oz kit / We’ll mostly be in a car / There is oxygen” 

“Okay,” Axton shrugged and hopped into the moon buggy. Zer0 took the driver's position immediately starting the car and driving through one of the exits. 

They appeared to be on a separate island inhabited by scary looking beasts, kraggons, Axton remembered. The scenery was mostly volcanic with the exception of a building on the main land which means that’s probably where they were heading to which also means... they were about to jump across the steep. Axton held onto every handle in the buggy as Zer0 was accelerating towards the abyss. 

Thankfully, they made it. 

Zer0 made a sharp right turn and drove around the hill into the garage. They didn’t even have the chance to get out of the car when an object came flying towards them and hit the buggy. 

“What the-” started Axton but was rudely yanked out by a strong hand and fell on the floor, trying to cover his face from being hit.

“Who are you?” asked a female voice somewhere above him. 

“What? I’m- I’m Axton. Vault Hunter”

The woman seemed to be irritated by the answer and put her foot on Axton’s chest. “If you came to kill me it was a stupid way to enter”

“Athena, enough / We are not here to kill you / Quite the opposite,” Zer0 got out of the buggy from the other side and walked closer. 

“Zer0… I didn’t know it was you. I-” she glanced at Axton on the ground and removed her foot. “Sorry”

“Yeah, no worries,” sergeant tried to play it cool while getting up on his feet. 

“Well, come in” Athena blurted out, gesturing into the depths of the building. 

As they sat around the table, another young woman came walking down the stairs.

“Oh, who do we have here? Zero, I haven’t seen ya in a while,” she approached the company, shook hands with the assassin and then stretched her hand towards the commando. “And who is this lovely fella?”

“Axton”

“You’ve got a cool turret there, Axton. May I see?”

“Oh, sure,” he took the box and gave it to Janey, surprised by her interest. At the same time Zer0 was busy talking to Athena barely louder than a whisper.

“Dahl’s tech. You don’t see stuff like that very often here,” Janey had unfolded the turret and was studying it in detail. “Ya’ve got lots of upgrades on this thing”

“Yeah, there were…” Axton scratched the back of his head and coughed getting his voice straight. “They gave me it like that. It was the only thing I could keep from the army”

“I told you I’m done with that,” Athena suddenly exclaimed and stood up. 

Zer0 looked at her and then shifted his gaze, or just helmet, to Axton expecting him to say anything.

“Hey, hey, wait, did he tell you how much people we saw at Dahl’s camp? There’s no way we can handle them ourselves. We need you”

“I said no,” Athena’s tone suggested there was no point in continuing the conversation. 

Axton sighed and looked away, noticing a figure who quickly hid behind the archway on the second floor. 

“Who’s there?” he asked Janey, pointing with his head.

“Oh, that’s-”

“None of your business,” Athena stood in front of Axton blocking the way. 

“Huh,” Axton put his hands on his hips. “What’s with the secrecy?”

“I said it’s none of your fucking business”

“Hey, guys,” voice came from upstairs and then a figure appeared. Axton swore he was having a stroke. “You don’t need to fight”

It was the face of Handsome Jack. Body of Handsome Jack. Voice of Handsome Jack… except the tone was different. It sounded tinier in a way.

Axton buffered for another couple of seconds and then came to the conclusion. “Doppelganger”

“Bravo,” said Athena with no enthusiasm in her voice turning towards Jack’s clone. “Tim, go upstairs, we’ll deal with it”

“O- Okay,” he nodded.

“Wait… You have Jack’s doppelganger in here? And he’s like… what, 99% like Jack? I mean I’ve seen doppelgangers, hell, we even killed them…” at this words Tim cringed and stopped for a second in his ascent up the stairs. “But… he’s different”

Athena folded her arms around her chest and narrowed her eyes. “Your point?”

“That’s amazing! We could use him for so much-”

The woman suddenly grabbed Axton by his shirt and hit against the wall. “You’re not using him for anything, you hear me?”

“For what?” familiar voice appeared again. 

“What?” Axton and Athena simultaneously turned towards the source.

“You could use me for what?”

“Um…” sergeant looked away thinking of a response. “We could drive away Dahl, for example. Or Maliwan”

“Jack’s dead. Everyone knows that,” Athena was still holding Axton fixed against the wall. 

“That’s why nobody expects him. We take Tim - that’s your name, right?” Tim nodded in response. “We take Tim with us, Dahl’s confused and while they are busy being confused we kill them”

“That can really work / He will be a distraction / I will call Lilith” 

“No. No! Am I the only one who undestands what a stupid idea that is? He’s going to get killed. People hate Jack and all of his clones,” Athena stepped away from Axton looking at all the people in the room.

“I promise he’ll stay alive,” it was a bit weird talking about someone in third person when they were in the room but Tim didn’t seem to mind. Athena and Janey wanted to protect the guy in a parenting way even though he wasn’t a child. It was hard telling how old Tim was since his whole appearance was that of Handsome Jack who didn’t age so Tim could be anything from 20 to 60. 

“I’ll do it”

“Tim...”

“No, I’ll do it. If it means finally using this” he gestured to himself, “for good then I wanna do it”

Athena sighed. 

Zer0 and Tim fast-travelled into Moxxi’s bar in order to find something to cover Tim’s face with and Axton remained the last to leave.

“Janey, could you give us a minute?”

“Sure, hun,” she kissed Athena and went to the moon buggy Axton and Zer0 left behind.

“If anything, anything, happens to him, I will personally kill you. I don't care where you will be, I will find you and I will make you stop breathing”

“I- I promise,” Axton swallowed before using a one-way travel station to Concordia. 

***

When he entered his room in Sanctuary, he remembered the whole thing with August getting shot since the guy himself was laying on his bed. 

“You’re still here”

“Do you want me leave?” he sounded confident enough that he was ready to walk away any second but his position initiated that he was not moving anywhere.

“No. Stay,” Axton dropped into the chair next to the window and sighed. 

They stayed quiet for a while, only commando’s tired breathing breaking the silence. 

“Long day?”

“Yep”

“Any news?”

Axton contemplated telling August about Tim who was now somewhere with Zer0 with a full bandit mask on and wrapped in two additional layers of clothing but decided against that and shook his head. 

A few more minutes passed.

“I’ve thanked you, have I?” asked Axton. “For saving us out there”

“Yeah, well,” August waved his hand away. “I saved you, you saved me.. I guess we’re even”

“I guess we are,” Axton’s gaze lingered on August. The guy wasn’t exactly a supermodel but then again who on Pandora was? For a gang member August was handsome. Shit, no, Jack completely ruined this word for everyone. August was… nice. Not scrawny, he had some muscle and could probably punch Axton in the face. Or pin him against the wall. Or… wow, okay that was taking a weird turn. Sergeant shook his head trying to shake off inappropriate thoughts. 

But then again, life’s short. And if you can find someone you want to spend time with or have sex with, you should go for it because you could be eaten by a borok or shot by a bandit tomorrow so at least you could make your final day pleasant. You rarely have something pleasant on Pandora. 

“Do you wanna stay here tonight?” 

August looked at him for a couple of seconds, shrugged and said: “Sure”.

“I’m sleeping on the bed”

“Cool”

“You’re also sleeping on the bed”

“And?” August looked irritated but his eyes were giving out that he understood what Axton was saying by that. 

“My hands might wonder at night”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, is this how you get people into your bed? You’re so cheesy”

“So what you’re saying,” Axton got up from the chair and started undressing, “is that you’re not against it”

“If you’re gonna be stupid I’m walking away now,” he said while also undoing his belt.

Axton dropped the shirt and quickly locked the door so they wouldn’t get any sudden visitors at night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zer0 and Athena know each other because why the hell not. They're assassins, surely they have crossed ways.


End file.
